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Instructions for Authors

CHILD CARE IN PRACTICE JOURNAL

Instructions for Authors

Contributions are invited from all those employed in and concerned with the field of Child Care.

Submissions describing practice and research as well as book reviews, research reviews, training, and conference/course reviews are all welcomed. Child Care in Practice is distributed quarterly and publishes a variety of multi-disciplinary Child Care articles. Although the majority of the Journal’s readership are located in the UK and Ireland, it has a growing international audience and international contributions are actively welcomed.

Submission Requirements:

All submissions should be made online at the Child Care in Practice Manuscript Central site (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cccp). New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site submissions should be made via the Author Centre.

Authors should prepare and upload two versions of their manuscript. One should be a complete text, while in the second all document information identifying the author should be removed from the files to allow them to be sent anonymously to reviewers. When uploading files authors will then be able to define the non-anonymous version as “File not for review”.

Acknowledgement and Assessment of Submissions: All submissions are acknowledged immediately, papers then undergo our peer review process. On the basis of the reviewers’ feedback, papers will be accepted unconditionally, accepted subject to revision or rejected. On acceptance, the Editor retains the right to make necessary stylistic changes and decide on the date of publication (generally within three to six months of acceptance).

Author Details:

All authors of a manuscript should include their full names, affiliations, postal addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses on the cover page of the manuscript. One author should be identified as the corresponding author. Please give the affiliation where the research was conducted. If any of the named co-authors moves affiliation during the peer review process, the new affiliation can be given as a footnote. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after the manuscript is accepted. Please note that the email address of the corresponding author will normally be displayed in the article PDF and the online article.

All persons who have a reasonable claim to authorship must be named in the manuscript as co-authors; the corresponding author must be authorized by all co-authors to act as an agent on their behalf in all matters pertaining to publication of the manuscript, and the order of names should be agreed by all authors.

Abstract:

All article submissions should contain a structured abstract of no more than 300 words in length.

Key words should also be outlined.

Main Text: Between 3000 – 5000 words (not including abstract and references)

• Should be clearly organised with headings and subheadings as required.

• It should contain no errors of spelling, grammar or punctuation.

• Check the accuracy of all mathematical calculations, citations and references.

• Insure that you are consistent in your use of abbreviations, terminology and references throughout your paper.

• Avoid the use of the first person.

Electronic Processing:

We welcome figures sent electronically, but care and attention to these guidelines are essential as importing graphics packages can often be problematic.

Figures must be saved individually and separate to the text. Please do not embed figures in the text file.

Avoid the use of colour and tints for purely aesthetic reasons.

Figures should be produced as near to the finished size as possible.

All figures must be numbered in the order in which they appear in the paper (e.g. figure 1, figure 2). In multi-part figures, each part should be labelled (e.g. figure 1(a), figure 1(b)).

Figure captions must be saved separately, as part of the file containing the complete text of the paper, and numbered correspondingly.

The file name for the graphic should be descriptive of the graphic, e.g. Figure1, Figure2a.

Files should be saved as on of the following formats: TIFF (tagged image file format), PostScript or EPS (Encapsulated PostScript), and should contain all the necessary font information and the source file of the application (e.g. CorelDraw/Mac, CorelDraw/PC).

References:

References should be carefully checked, as the Editors cannot take responsibility for errors.

References within the Text Itself: In the text, the surname of authors should be cited followed by the date of publication; e.g. (Brown & Blue, 1995). Where there are three or more authors, the first author’s name is followed by et al.; e.g. (Yellow et al., 1996). If an author is quoted verbatim, page references should follow author and date within the parentheses, e.g. (White & Black, 1994, p.35). Where there is more than one reference cited all should be in parentheses, e.g. (White & Black, 1994; Jones et al., 1996). Where an author is referred to in the text, the date of publication is put in parentheses, e.g. ‘For Hare-Mustin (1994), power exists in the dominant discourses of society’. Titles of books referred to in the text are in italics and may be shortened to the main title, e.g. Cycles of Disadvantage.

References which Follow the Article: These references should be compiled in alphabetical order on a separate sheet. The reference should list, where applicable: author’s surname, initials (date of publication). ‘Title of article/chapter’. In names of editors, title of Journal or Book. Volume number or edition. Place of publication: Publisher.

Where the same author has several publications cited, use letters (a,b,c) to distinguish them. The main title of the publication should be in italics, the titles of articles/chapters in normal type. In the case of journals also include the volume, issue or edition and page numbers, in that order. Conclude with the place of publication and publisher.

Williams, F. (1989). Gender, race and class in British welfare policy. In A. Cochrane and J.

• Clarke (eds) Comparing Welfare States. London: Sage.

House style: Papers will be edited to conform to house styles with regard to spelling and presentation. Unnecessary capitalisation and underlining should be avoided, and quotations should be in normal type. Papers should be no longer than 5000 words in length. Manuscripts that greatly exceed this will be critically reviewed with respect to length. Shorter articles are welcomed. Authors should include a word count with their manuscript.

Announcements/Notices/Advertising: Events of national or international multidisciplinary interests must be submitted at least six months before the event and are subject to editorial approval.

Copyright: It is a condition of publication that authors vest copyright in their articles, including abstracts, in The Child Care In Practice Group. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and the journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors may, of course, use the article elsewhere after publication provided that prior permission is obtained from Taylor & Francis Ltd. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.

Free Article Access: As corresponding author, you will receive free access to your article on Taylor & Francis Online. You will be given access to the My authored works section of Taylor & Francis Online, which shows you all your published articles. You can easily view, read, and download your published articles from there. In addition, if someone has cited your article, you will be able to see this information. We are committed to promoting and increasing the visibility of your article and have provided this guidance <http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/beyondpublication/promotearticle.asp> on how you can help.

Reprints and Journal Copies: For enquiries regarding reprints, please contact the Taylor & Francis Author Services team at reprints@tandf.co.uk. To order a copy of the issue containing your article, please contact our Customer Services team at adhoc@tandf.co.uk.

Liability for and Accuracy of Submissions: A contribution is accepted on the strict understanding that its author is responsible for the accuracy of all information contained in it and that references to named people and/or organisations are both accurate and without libellous implications. It will be the responsibility of contributors to gain permission from relevant sources before submitting an article.

Audience:

Includes but is not limited to: Social Workers, Psychologists, Lawyers, Psychiatrists, Nurses, Sociologists, Public Health Workers, Law Enforcement, Educators, and Pediatricians.

Additional guidance for papers based on a single case study of practice:

Submissions based on a single case study are welcomed with the following stipulations:

- The article must promote high quality practice

- The study must be outcome evaluated

- There must be a clear evidence base

- The author(s) must discuss rigour and steps to reduce bias

- The author(s) must avoid self-promotion.

Manuscript Transfer Service:

Child Care in Practice has recently joined the Taylor and Francis Manuscript Transfer Service whereby authors whose manuscripts are reject on the grounds of being unsuitable for the journal are subsequently offered the option to have the article submitted to a Cogent journal.

A Cogent editor receiving a transferred manuscript will make independent editorial decisions on the need for further rounds of review and subsequent acceptance or rejection. Any transferred reviews remain anonymous except to the editor of the receiving journal.

T&F’s Cogent titles are multidisciplinary, open access journals that evaluate submissions on the basis of their scholarly or scientific validity and methodology, rather than the importance or significance of the work. Therefore, if an article is academically sound but is out of scope or not ‘significant’ enough for Child Care in Practice, it could be considered for publication in a Cogent journal. Papers that fail to meet the minimum standards of a scholarly article (before peer review) or are considered fundamentally flawed or unsound (after your peer review) would not be offered this option.